1989 Kosovo miners' strike
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The 1989 Kosovo miners' strike was a
hunger strike A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
initiated by the workers of the
Trepča Mines The Trepča Mines ( al, Miniera e Trepçës, sr, Рудник Трепча / ''Rudnik Trepča'') is a large industrial complex in Kosovo, located northeast of Mitrovica. The mine is located on the southern slopes of the Kopaonik mountain, bet ...
on 20 February 1989 against the abolition of the autonomy of the Province of Kosovo by the
Socialist Republic of Serbia , life_span = 1944–1992 , status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia , p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg , p2 ...
. The strike quickly gained support in Slovenia and Croatia, while in
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
protests were held against the Slovenian, Albanian and Croatian leaderships. It eventually ended after the hospitalization of 180 miners and the resignation of the leaders of the
League of Communists of Kosovo The League of Communists of Kosovo ( sh, Savez komunista Kosova, Савез комуниста Косова, SKK; al, Lidhja Komuniste Kosovare) was the Kosovo branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia f ...
Rahman Morina Rrahman Morina (; 1943 – 12 October 1990) was a Yugoslav police officer and communist politician. A Kosovo Albanian, he is remembered as being an opponent of Albanian separatism. Early career Morina had a career as an agent of the Ministry ...
,
Ali Shukriu Ali Shukriu (Serbian: Али Шукрија, ''Ali Šukrija''; 12 September 1919 – 6 January 2005) was a political figure of Kosovo, during its period as an autonomous province of Yugoslavia. He served as the 2nd Chairmen of the Executive Coun ...
and Husamedin Azemi.


Background

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...
was a federal republic consisting of republics including
SR Serbia , life_span = 1944–1992 , status = Constituent state of Yugoslavia , p1 = Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia , flag_p1 = Flag of German Reich (1935–1945).svg , p2 ...
, which in turn had two autonomous provinces,
SAP Vojvodina The Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina ( sh, / ) was one of two autonomous provinces within the Socialist Republic of Serbia, in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The province is the direct predecessor to the moder ...
and
SAP Kosovo The Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Socijalistička Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo, Социјалистичка Аутономна Покрајина Косово, separator=" / ", sq, Krahina Socialiste Autonome e Kosovë ...
. Kosovo was inhabited mostly by
Kosovo Albanians The Albanians of Kosovo ( sq, Shqiptarët e Kosovës, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovar/Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars/Kosovans, constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-gr ...
and the
1974 Yugoslav Constitution The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution was the fourth and final constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It came into effect on 21 February 1974. With 406 original articles, the 1974 constitution was one of the longest constitutio ...
gave Kosovo a then-unprecedented level of autonomy, but after
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
's death in 1980, Kosovo's autonomy began to be questioned by Serbian politicians. Following the 1981 riots in Kosovo, which the
League of Communists of Kosovo The League of Communists of Kosovo ( sh, Savez komunista Kosova, Савез комуниста Косова, SKK; al, Lidhja Komuniste Kosovare) was the Kosovo branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia f ...
declared to be a product of
Albanian nationalism Albanian nationalism is a general grouping of nationalist ideas and concepts generated by ethnic Albanians that were first formed in the 19th century during the Albanian National Awakening ( sq, Rilindja). Albanian nationalism is also associated w ...
, Serbia reacted by a desire to reduce the power of the Albanians in the province, and promoted a campaign claiming that Serbs were being pushed out of the province primarily by the growing Albanian population and not the state of the economy. In November 1988, 2,000 Albanian miners protested for the preservation of autonomy by marching from the southern mines to Kosovo's capital
Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians and ...
with support from another 6,000 other citizens along the way.


1989 strikes

The
League of Communists of Serbia , logo = , colorcode = , leader = President of the League of Communists of Serbia , predecessor = Provincial Committee for Serbia of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia , merged = , successor = SPS , ...
under
Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
engaged in a process of replacement of provincial leaders known as the " anti-bureaucratic revolution", whereby the local politicians were overthrown and replaced by Milošević loyalists. As the
National Assembly of Serbia The National Assembly ( sr-cyr, Народна скупштина, Narodna skupština, ) is the unicameral legislature of Serbia. The assembly is composed of 250 deputies who are proportionally elected to four-year terms by secret ballot. The as ...
was preparing constitutional changes that would have formally reduced the level of provincial autonomy, about 1,350 Trepča miners began their underground hunger strike on 20 February 1989 with similar demands about the preservation of the region's autonomous status and the resignation of pro-Milošević politicians of Kosovo. After the announcement of the strike Linda Abrashi, daughter of the head of the mines contacted journalist
Goran Milić Goran Milić (born 24 January 1946) is a Croatian and Bosnian journalist and television personality. With a high-profile career spanning forty years, he's one of the most recognizable media personalities in the countries of former Yugoslavia. Fro ...
, who set up interviews with the workers in the underground mines. As Milić considered the broadcast of the interviews by Belgrade TV unlikely, he managed to broadcast them with the assistance of another journalist Bane Vukašinović, who at that time was located in
Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...
. After the broadcast, the heads of Belgrade TV ordered Milić to return to Belgrade and the miners' strike report was his last one from Kosovo. In Belgrade, media and Serbian politicians accused
Azem Vllasi Azem Vllasi (born 23 December 1948) is a senior Kosovo Albanian politician and lawyer. Early years Vllasi was born in Robovac, Kosovska Kamenica, Yugoslavia, in today's Kosovo. In his youth and student years, Vllasi chaired a number of youth o ...
, a provincial leader of the League of Communists, as the instigator of the strikes, although he denied any involvement in the events. Milošević prepared a plan that would allow him to send police reinforcements to Kosovo, but his plan didn't have the majority vote needed by the other members of the federal
Presidency of Yugoslavia bs, Predsjedništvo SFRJ Slovene: ''Predsedstvo SFRJ'' mk, Председателство на СФРЈ , flag = Standard of a Member of the Presidency of SFR Yugoslavia.svg , flagsize = 125px , flagborder = , flagcaption = Standard of a Me ...
.
Stipe Šuvar Stipe Šuvar (17 February 1936 – 29 June 2004) was a Croatian politician and sociologist who was regarded to have been one of the most influential communist politicians in the League of Communists of Croatia in Socialist Republic of Croatia d ...
negotiated with the miners as a representative of the
League of Communists of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
. After about a week, some 180 miners had been hospitalized. On the evening of 27 February 1989,
Rahman Morina Rrahman Morina (; 1943 – 12 October 1990) was a Yugoslav police officer and communist politician. A Kosovo Albanian, he is remembered as being an opponent of Albanian separatism. Early career Morina had a career as an agent of the Ministry ...
,
Ali Shukriu Ali Shukriu (Serbian: Али Шукрија, ''Ali Šukrija''; 12 September 1919 – 6 January 2005) was a political figure of Kosovo, during its period as an autonomous province of Yugoslavia. He served as the 2nd Chairmen of the Executive Coun ...
and Husamedin Azemi, heads of the pro-Milošević faction in Kosovo, resigned. Late in the evening, the Presidency of Yugoslavia met and decided on "special measures" for Kosovo that effectively instituted an unrestricted
state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
. Only 50 strikers were left, the ones who had barricaded themselves inside the "Stari trg" mine, at 850 m underground. At midnight, the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit descended through the fire escape shafts, as elevators were disabled, and started arresting the strikers. The aforementioned "special measures" prompted a move of 1,500 federal police troops under Serbian leadership to Kosovo, where they began a campaign to re-establishing a civil order.


Aftermath

A day after the end of the strikes the Slovenian Committee for Human Rights and the
Slovene Writers' Association The Slovene Writers' Association ( sl, Društvo slovenskih pisateljev) is a non-profit association of Slovene writers based in Ljubljana. The association was founded on 21 April 1872 in Ljubljana at the initiative of Davorin Trstenjak who also be ...
held a mass meeting in
Cankar Hall The Cankar Centre or Cankar Hall ( sl, Cankarjev dom) is the largest Slovenian convention, congress and culture center. The building was designed by the architect Edvard Ravnikar and was built at the southern edge of Republic Square in Ljubljana b ...
, where Serbian interventionism in Kosovo was condemned and support for the strikers was expressed. During the meeting
Jožef Školč Jožef Školč (born 19 August 1960) is a Slovenian left liberal politician. He was born in the village of Breginj in western Slovenia, in what was then the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He graduated from political science at the ...
, head of the Slovene Youth Organization (SYO) compared the situation of the Albanians in Yugoslavia to that of the Jews during WWII, while
Milan Kučan Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovene politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 23 December 1991 until 22 December 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of the Presidency of SR Slov ...
, head of the
League of Communists of Slovenia The League of Communists of Slovenia ( sl, Zveza komunistov Slovenije, ZKS; sh, Savez komunista Slovenije) was the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1989. It was establis ...
labeled the strike as a defense of Yugoslavia. The SYO also introduced a badge based on the star of David with the text ''Kosovo My Homeland''. In response against the Slovenian actions a protest that attracted about a million people was held in Belgrade, while the
Association of Writers of Serbia The Association of Writers of Serbia ( Serbian: Удружење књижевника Србије, ''Udruženje književnika Srbije'') is Serbia's official writing association. Its current president is Milovan Vitezović. History The association ...
(AWS) broke off its relations with the Slovene Writers' Association. The Belgrade protesters among others requested the cancellation of the resignation of Morina, Shukriu, Azemi and the arrest and execution of Vllasi. In protest the Albanian members of the AWS left the organization and accused the Serbian writers of support to the repression of Albanians. About a month after the end of the strike the parliament of Kosovo was surrounded by tanks and the Serbian police and the deputies were brought in to vote for the effective revocation of the region's autonomy. Most of the Albanian deputies abstained in order to invalidate the process as a two-thirds majority was required for constitutional amendments, however, the amendments were declared passed. The region's provincial status was not formally abolished as Milošević needed its vote to gain influence in the federal presidency of Yugoslavia.


See also

*
Breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...


Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kosovo miners strike, 1989 Breakup of Yugoslavia Hunger strikes Communism in Kosovo Political repression in Yugoslavia Events in Yugoslavia 1989 in Yugoslavia Miners' labor disputes 1989 in Serbia Protests in Kosovo Protests in Serbia February 1989 events in Europe 1989 in Kosovo 1989 in politics 1989 labor disputes and strikes 1989 protests